Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Vol.VI: Introduction, Glossary and Indexes (in Seven Volumes)

It is impossible to overstate the importance of English poet GEOFFREY CHAUCER (c. 1343–c. 1400) to the development of literature in the English language. His writings—which were popular during his own lifetime with the nobility as well as with the increasingly literate merchant class—marked the first celebration of the English vernacular as a tongue worthy of literary endeavor, most notably in his unfinished narrative poem The Canterbury Tales, the format and structure of which continues to...